The answer to this question, yes, but it depends. The reason for this is because it depends on the year in medical school, and so, I have laid out specifically the extent of long breaks during the course of medical school. But the truth is, we really don’t get too much of a break.

The Summer of First Year

After the completion of the first year of medical school, this is typically the first and last “real” summer medical students have during medical school. It’s pretty nice, almost like a pat on the back for a year’s hard work. Typically, the summer vacation lasts about 2 months, from June to August. This may vary depending on the medical school but the consensus is usually about this long.

Now, many medical students have many options to do whatever they want during their “last summer break.” Personally, I talked to many of my professors and the majority told me to simply enjoy the free time I have. And I personally appreciate that I actually took a vacation because the second year is a beast and you really need to start it feeling refreshed and ready for war.

Then, you have a minority of students either working, doing research, volunteering, board studying, or some type of resume building activity over the summer. I would caution you to mostly relax and take it easy. It is terribly easy to burnout during the intensity of the second year so having some fun and self-care is a priority.

Second Year Misery

For the second year, you pretty much don’t get summer off. This is because this is the summer that medical students are intensely studying for their board exam. Typically, we don’t even consider this in having a summer off because most of it is spent studying. But after you take the exam, which is late into the summer months, medical students may have a week or two of “break” before they are hurriedly starting their rotations as a third year.

Even if you manage to squeeze in a week or two of a break after your board exam, you still need time to recover from the months of non-stop studying AND be able to start studying for your rotations that you would too-soon begin.

There really isn’t a summer off during the second year, and this is one of the reasons why the second year is the most difficult year in medical school.

What About Third Year and Fourth Year?

Now, third and fourth year of medical school is different. Instead of having classes like we usually do, we have rotations. It’s basically getting trained in different specialties in hospitals. We do need to study for whichever rotation we are currently doing, but other than that, we’re simply just working in the hospital. We don’t have a set schedule in terms of the timeline of things because it’s all dependent on the hospital and the rotation site.

So, no, we don’t get a set time for summer vacation during our third and fourth year.

Does Winter Vacation Exist?

Yes, we do, thankfully. For the first and second year, at least. The third and fourth year is the odd years where there’s no “set” time frame for any breaks. But hey, at least we have it during our first and second year. It’s typically around 2 weeks, from mid to the end of December.

There’s less of vacation time during the second year, just because the board exam is approaching and most students would brush up on studying and reviewing board prep material.

Do Med Students Get Weekends Off?

We typically don’t have classes over the weekend, but we do spent the majority of the weekend studying. I would probably spend the most time during the weekend to review and study all the material that were given during the week. Especially because our exams are usually early 8 AM on Monday mornings.

So no, I personally don’t get the weekends off.

Any Other Time Off During School?

Yes, we do but it is very school dependent. My school has a “Fall Break” in the middle of the fall semester of about four days. Honestly, it’s not much of a break rather than more time to catch up on studying, to be honest.

We typically have major holidays off as well, such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, and New Years Day. It’s funny how I mention Thanksgiving as a holiday as a “break” because I clearly remember studying Anatomy during the entirety of my Thanksgiving “break” during my first year in medical school.

Most of our breaks are spent catching up on studying lecture materials or studying for our board exam, which we are grumpy about but still immensely grateful for.